By Juan Herrera

After suffering a tough 2-1 loss to Northwestern in overtime, the Maryland’s men’s soccer team returned to action on Monday to take on Villanova. Against Northwestern, the Terps outshot the Wildcats 23-3. In Monday’s game, the Terps were able to start aggressively with 15 shots in the first half.

With only 15 minutes gone by, the Terps already had six shots in the game. Midfielder Amar Sejdic had a great shot at scoring from outside the box early on, but Villanova goalkeeper Will Steiner was able to deflect it out of bounds. The Terps were able to break the deadlock in the 20th minute when Sejdic passed the ball to midfielder Tsubasa Endoh near the end line. Endoh was able to collect the pass to Steiner to the far post, giving the Terps a 1-0 lead. This goal was Endoh’s first of the season.

“It felt good, I was waiting for the moment,” Endoh said. “At the moment I saw the goalie lean to the left so I tried to rip it and it went in.”

Through the rest of the first half, the Terps were aggressive and pressured the ball constantly on Villanova’s side of the field. Endoh nearly managed to score again a few minutes later after collecting a pass from forward David Kabelik near the goal and shooting it over the crossbar. Kabelik was put into the starting lineup against Villanova because forwards Sebastian Elney and Eryk Williamson were in Germany playing with the U-20 U.S. men’s national team. The Terps closed the first half with 15 shots and great contributions on offense from Endoh, Kabelik and midfielder Jorge Calix.

“I thought we were very disciplined all night,” Coach Sasho Cirovski said.

“I thought we were under control and composed throughout the night.”

In the second half, the Terps continued their attack with shots from Calix and Endoh that were saved by Steiner. In the 57th minute of the game, Calix was able to dribble the ball down the left side of field and found space to cross the ball past a Villanova defender to Kabelik who was waiting in the box. Kabelik collected the pass and struck it into the net for his second goal of the season.

“It felt awesome to score,” Kabelik said. “That was the goal and I did it so I was proud of myself a little bit but it was a whole team effort.”

The remainder of the second half was mostly spent on Villanova’s side of the field. The Terrapins ended the night with 27 shots to Villanova’s seven in their 2-0 win.

“I thought it was a great effort by our team today. It was a terrific response after the disappointment on Friday,” Coach Cirovski said. “We put together a full 90 and I loved the way our players completed on every play throughout the night.”

The Terps (5-3-3) will head to University Park, Pennsylvania to take on Penn State on Friday.